Exchange 2007 SP3 provides support only for a new installation of Exchange on Windows Server 2008 R2. Exchange 2007 SP3 is not supported in an upgrade scenario on Windows Server 2008 R2. For example, Exchange 2007 SP3 does not support the following installation scenarios:

A new Exchange 2007 SP3 installation on a Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer that has been upgraded from Windows Server 2008

Upgrading Exchange 2007 SP2 to Exchange 2007 SP3 on a Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer that has been upgraded from Windows Server 2008

Upgrading the operating system from Windows Server 2008 to Windows Server 2008 R2 on a computer that has Exchange 2007 SP3 installed

Exchange 2007 SP3 supports the installation of the Exchange 2007 management tools on a computer that is running Windows 7. Additionally, Exchange 2007 SP3 provides support for the installation of the Exchange 2007 Management Tools together with the Exchange Server 2010 Management Tools on the same Windows 7-based computer.

Exchange 2007 SP3 provides support only for a new installation of the Exchange Management Tools on Windows 7. Exchange 2007 SP3 is not supported in an upgrade scenario on Windows 7. For example, Exchange 2007 SP3 does not support the following installation scenarios:

A new Exchange 2007 SP3 installation on a Windows 7-based computer that has been upgraded from Windows Vista

Upgrading Exchange 2007 SP2 to Exchange 2007 SP3 on a Windows 7-based computer that has been upgraded from Windows Vista

Upgrading the operating system from Windows Vista to Windows 7 with Exchange 2007 on a computer that has Exchange 2007 SP3 installed

Exchange 2007 SP3 includes support for Right-to-Left text in e-mail message disclaimers in a right-to-left language, such as Arabic. In earlier versions of Exchange, when you use a transport rule to create a disclaimer in a right-to-left language on an Exchange 2007 Hub Transport server, the text appears incorrectly when you view it from Outlook 2007.

There are many users who are still having all their mails Gmail or Hotmail and have currently opted for Microsoft Online. Thus if they want to move their mails from Gmail or Hotmail account to the Microsoft Online account we have two options here

Method 1 (Manual Method):

Configure your Outlook (if its not preconfigured) with the Gmail or Hotmail account and copy all the emails from the Hotmail/Gmail to a PST.

Now Configure a new Outlook profile with Exchange Online or use the Single Sign On Client to get your Outlook client configured.

Attach the PST again (File > Open > Outlook Data File) and copy the emails from the PST to your Exchange Online account.

Method 2 (Using PowerShell):

Although the method explained above is relatively simple in terms of whats happening, but it requires a lot of steps for the task to be executed. So to make the mails migrations a little simple, we have use the Powershell or the Migration Command Shell.

Make sure that you have a user with a valid Microsoft Online Account. You can also have a trial account if you don’t have a paid one. Check out this link

The most important step is to have Directory Synchronization enabled on the Microsoft Online. (Check screenshot below)

Download and install the Microsoft Online Services Migration Tools. You can download it from here 32 bit and 64 bit

For installing the Microsoft Online Services Migration Tools, make sure that the following criteria is met

Once in the Migration Command Shell, type in the following commands for hotmail or Gmail respectively. and be patient as it takes some time to move all the mails from Gmail/hotmail to Microsoft Online account (depending upon the mailbox size on Gmail or hotmail)

The one in bold needs to be changed

Sourceidentity : Your gmail or hotmail email address

SourceLoginID : Again, your gmail or hotmail email ID

Sourcepassword : Your Gmail or hotmail password (make sure that there are no quotes after Sourcepassword)

Targetidentity : Your email address for Microsoft Online Services. (even if you have verified other domains, still I would suggest using the default email address, as I have used)

There are various ways in which your hard drive may fail; these situations are usually known as failure modes and identifying the failure and its cause is known as failure determination. Head Crash is one of the most common way in which your hard drive can fail.

In fact, the head crash is an ‘airline disaster’ of hard drive world; it is dramatic, feared, and well-known. Such disaster leads to any sort of data loss and require Data Recovery solutions to be handled.

Mechanical Failure: These include the physical component failure mostly due to actuator arm or spindle motor which causes excessive heat, motor burnout, stuck bearings, and vibration.

Read/Write Head Failures: These include head contamination, head manufacturing defects, improper flying height, bad wiring among logical board and head, and exuberant read/write errors. All these failure situations comprise a high percentage of total number of disk failures.

Firmware or Logic Board Failure: They are related to the integrated circuit board of the hard drive, its chips, circuits, other components, and firmware (software routines) that runs it.

Media Failure: This category of issues relates to difficulty with hard drive platters and magnetic media, servo operation, formatting, and more. It includes the hard drives, which fail due to poor handling, read/write errors, low-level formatting errors, and scratches on media surface.

Nevertheless the failure mode and failure determination, ultimate result is some sort of data loss. In such situations, backup proves a real help. However, if the backup is not available, you need to opt for Data Recovery methods to extract lost data.

In case of logical failure, you can get your data back in a quick and easy way through Data Recovery Software. On the other hand, mechanical failure, media failure, firmware failure, and read/write head failure like circumstances need special assistance from Data Recovery Service professionals, to be sorted out.

For users who are currently on older Windows editions or other OS and are keen on trying Windows 7 first before installing it on their system. Microsoft has introduced and great option here to experience the Widnows 7 experience in the form of a Virtual Lab.

To experience the Windows 7 Test Drive or or Virtual lab, all you need is IE 6.0 or later and must be on Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista or 7. Some more important requirements as explined on the Windows 7 Professional test drive website are:

Screen Resolution: The Virtual Demo sessions are best viewed at a screen resolution of 1024×768 or greater. Otherwise you may experience clipping of content.Cookies Enabled: You must have cookies enabled to run these Virtual Demo sessions.ActiveX Control: The Microsoft “Virtual Machine Remote Control” Active X control is required by this site. If you do not have it installed, you will be asked to when launching the Virtual Demo. There are instuctions relating to this located during the install.Firewall: Connecting to the Virtual Demo sessions require that you have port 443 open. Please see your network administrator for assistance.

Some key points to remember:

Since its a virtual lab installed on older Microsoft virtualization technologies, so dont expect Aero features

Also since you are connecting to a desktop over the internet, your internet bandwidth will play an important role in the performance that you will get while working on this Virtual Lab. Which may cause some latency while operating on Windows 7

Clipboard access is only from host computer to Windows 7 virtual machine and not the other way around

Note : The self extractor default install location is C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Bin. To view the most recent version of the Help file within Exchange Server, be sure to extract the Help file (exchhelp.chm) to the folder where the Help file is currently installed. You can search your local drive to find the location where the Help file is installed (typically C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Bin).

Zeollar is a Microsoft India DPE initiative that gets you the latest technical content on a daily basis in different channels. Think of it like a personal television that switches on every day at a specified hour allowing you to switch channels and view the channel of your interest.

The quality of the videos present on the site are awesome, but do remember that it will need a good bandwith speed to play the streaming videos.

The website has vidoes starting from 1st Feb 2010., and you will find 1 session per day. One can also add the events to his calender on Outlook (.ics) using the schedule option, so as to not miss any of the sessions.

As of now the media present on the site is only for the Delevopers. But they would be soon coming up with contents for Archtects, Designers and IT PROs.